At the beginning of 1819, Gaetano Donizetti was a 22yearold composer who had just made his debut the previous year . He was linked to the wandering company of the impresario Paolo Zancla and was strongly bound to Bortolomeo Merelli, from Bergamo like him and at the time a librettist, before he became one of the most important and successful Italian impresarios of the nineteenth century. During the Carnival season of 1818-19, Zancla’s company was in Mantua to stage Clotilde by Coccia, which however had a disastrous outcome: the prima donna was thrown on stage not only cooked pears, but even an incendiary piece that luckily only burnt the edge of her costume instead of setting the entire theatre on fire. As a response, Zancla staged Ross ini’s L’italiana in Algeri and summoned to Mantua the young creative couple MerelliDonizetti, who pro duced Le nozze in villa, a typical opera buffa of the time, based on a comedy by Kotzebue translated into Italian as I provinciali. Little is known about the outcome of the opera; it was probably a fiasco, al though it was revived in Treviso in the spring of 1820 and then in Genoa two years later . The work also presents numerous textual problems, starting with the fact that there is no autograph copy, that the musical sources are dispersed and that the quintet of the second act, “Aura gentil, che mormori”, is com pletely missing . As part of the #Donizetti200 pro ject, the Festival will present the first modern perfor mance of this title, which has remained, until today, quite “mysterious” (very few sources speak about it). The quintet is no longer missing, because it was newly by Elio and Rocco Tanica with the collabora tion of Enrico Melozzi. The production is inspired by philological criteria for the musical part, with the use of the tuning fork of the time and “historically informed” instrumentalists, and by references to current events for the scenic part. The aim is to retrieve the satiric and funny work that Donizetti tried to offer to the difficult Mantuan audience, always remaining in the wake of the most illustrious com poser of his time, Rossini, who is the obvious model for the Nozze in Villa. This is a further step in the re discovery of Donizetti’s works, as we are aware that the more Donizetti is known the bettr.

Le nozze in villa

Gaetano Donizetti Theater

Pagliacci, an opera in two acts with a prologue, by Ruggero Leoncavallo, follows in the fortunate wake of Cavalleria rusticana, which had paved the way for the strand of verismo theatre. The libretto, prepared by the composer himself, is based on a crime story, a crime of passion that really happened in Montalto Uffugo, the village in Calabria where the composer lived as a young man. Performed at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, under the baton of Toscanini, the opera achieved international fame in a very short time. The popular setting, where violent feelings are rendered by a convulsive vocalism, is the backdrop to the drama of jealousy of Canio, the head of an itinerant company. Thanks to the subtle narrative device of the theatre within the theatre, of real life consumed in the comedy performed on stage, Leoncavallo enhances the dramatic charge of the subject. The demon of jealousy that devours the protagonist, an unhappy man in reality and in fiction, cannot but lead him to the final catastrophe, with the heinous murder of his adulterous wife Nedda and her unfortunate lover.

Pagliacci / Cavalleria rusticana

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

If any opera can break your heart, it surely is Madama Butterfly, the story of an innocent young Japanese girl, who — as her nickname foreshadows — is crushed by one of opera’s most callous cads, naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, who promises her a forever love. She is willing to give up her family and her religion to become a good “American” wife. From the ecstatic love duet on their wedding night, to the famous “humming chorus,” as she and her servant Suzuki await Pinkerton’s return, to the anguish of her suicide to preserve her honor — this deeply moving opera will resonate long after the last note has sounded. Performed by a star-studded cast of singers, orchestra and chorus, led by Luisi, a masterful opera conductor, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is this season’s stunning opera in concert.

Manuela Custer

Events

Past events

Jul 5, 2026

Le nozze in villa · Fondazione Teatro Donizetti

Feb 22 - Mar 3, 2026

Pagliacci / Cavalleria rusticana · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Future and recently performed repertoire

suzuki in Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Suzuki (Alt. Cast) in Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Dallas Symphony Chorus

Mother Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni

Opera Carlo Felice Genova

Singer in Haugtussa by Grieg

Opera Carlo Felice Genova

Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Singer in Teodora by Sibelius

Opera Carlo Felice Genova

Singer in Sånger vid havet by Nystroem

Opera Carlo Felice Genova

Anastasia in Le nozze in villa by Donizetti

Fondazione Teatro Donizetti

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